Samsung is set to launch Galaxy Buds Plus with improvements across the board
No noise cancellation though
Last year, Samsung released its first set of true wireless earphones – the Galaxy Buds – to go alongside the launch of the Galaxy S10. In fact, they were a freebie given away with preorders, partly because they were a good showcase of the phone’s new party trick: being able to wirelessly charge other products.
But it looks like the Galaxy Buds weren’t a one-time thing. “Reliable sources” talking to SamMobile have confirmed that a revised edition is on the way, and sooner than you might think, with the new earphones set to launch alongside the Galaxy S20 next month.
The Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus will improve things across the board, but possibly not in the way you’d hope.
Let’s get the bad news out of the way first: no active noise cancellation (ANC). That means the outside world will likely creep in more than you like in noisy environments, and is especially disappointing given the Pro version of Apple’s AirPods added the same functionality.
But the rest is all good, by the sounds of it. As well as “improvements to the overall sound quality”, Samsung has sought to address a couple of bugbears users have had: call quality and battery life. The former has apparently been fixed by doubling the number of microphones from two to four, while the latter should be addressed with a larger 85mAh cell (the older models had 58mAh batteries).
The originals got a three-star review from us, with Chris praising their comfortable fit and general convenience, but feeling less impressed elsewhere. “If all you want is a decent pair of true wireless headphones to go with your existing phone, they make a far less convincing case for themselves, with lacklustre sound quality and spotty connectivity outweighing the Galaxy Buds’ undoubted practicality,” he wrote.
“At £140, I’d advise you choose the RHA TrueConnect or the TicPods Free instead.”
Hopefully both of these points will be addressed by Samsung with the newer models. We shouldn’t have too long to wait to find out, as SamMobile says that the new earphones will emerge alongside the Galaxy S20 on 11 February. Watch this space.